Dr Porto de Albuquerque has an interdisciplinary background in computational, social and geographical sciences. He is a sociotechnical researcher in the emerging interdisciplinary fields of Urban Analytics and Sociospatial Data Science, active in the international scientific communities of Geographic Information Science and Information Systems Management. He develops innovative research methods to improve our understanding of sociotechnical urban environments, particularly in the global South, with a view to making cities more resilient and to improving human development.

His research is situated within an interdisciplinary problem space that intersects urban geography, data science, information management, and science & technology studies. His sociotechnical approach draws on social research and geo-computational methods, covering a wide range of topics that include collaborative information systems, crowdsourced and volunteered geographic information, decision support systems, disaster management, urban resilience, and sustainable urban development.

Academic Profile

After studying Computer Science, Social Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Campinas, Brazil, Dr Porto de Albuquerque did a PhD in Computer Science at the University of Campinas and in the Technical University of Dortmund, Germany (2006). He conducted post-doctoral research in social studies of information systems at the University of Hamburg, Germany, as a Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2006-2008). From 2013-2015 he acted as a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Geography of Heidelberg University, Germany, from which he currently holds a fellowship funded by the DFG’s Excellence Programme. Previously, he worked at the School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities of the University of São Paulo (2008-2010) and at the Department of Computer Systems of the Institute of Mathematical and Computing Sciences of the University of São Paulo (2010-2015), Brazil, with which he still maintains an honorary affiliation.

Research Projects

Dr Porto de Albuquerque's research has been sustained by a solid track record of third-party funded grants secured as PI (£1m) and Co-I (£6m) in three different countries (UK, Germany and Brazil) with funding from the Economics and Social Science Research Council (ESRC), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) - Global Challenges Research Fund, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), LUBW/Environment Agency of the State of Baden-Württemberg (Germany), CAPES and FAPESP (Brazil).

Modules Taught

Research Supervised

I'm currently interested in supervising students motivated to work on urban analytics and urban data studies from an interdisciplinary perspective. My supervised students can receive PhD scholarships from the Warwick Institute for the Science of Cities (Centre for Doctoral Training in Urban Science & Progress) and from The Alan Turing Institute. Furthermore, I'm a fellow alumnus of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and can host postdoctoral fellows with funding from the Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship.

Sidgley Camargo de Andrade (University of São Paulo, with Alexandre Delbem): An approach to high-granulation event detection and monitoring through social media streams and sensor data streams: an application in the area of flash flooding.

Professional Association Memberships: Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), Member of the International Association for Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM), Member of the Brazilian Computing Society (SBC), Founding member of the Brazilian Association for Science, Technology and Society Studies (ESOCITE.BR)